Past Winners

Professional Journalists

  • Hana Baba

    2022

    For The Spiritual Edge podcast series, On Becoming Muslim, on KALW Public Radio. These sound-rich stories explore the motivations and challenges of converts as they carve out a uniquely American path for being Muslim in the United States.

  • Rowaida Abdelaziz

    2022

    For Family Battles ICE For The Same Reason They Fled Their Home: They're Muslim, in Huffington Post. Part of a series that focuses on immigration, Islamophobia, and social justice issues, portraying Muslim immigrants fleeing persecution who find themselves fighting anti-Islam bias in the U.S. immigration system

  • Jennifer Berry Hawes

    2022

    For ‘I Am Omar:’ A quest for the true identity of Omar ibn Said, a Muslim man enslaved in the Carolinas, in Charleston, South Carolina Post and Courier. Omar ibn Said was a Muslim scholar in Senegal until he was captured and sold into American slavery. While enslaved, he wrote an invaluable autobiography.

  • Hannah Allam

    2019

    For a yearlong series of BuzzFeed News articles that captures how external pressures are forcing internal debates among U.S. Muslims. These deeply reported stories reveal a community, fearful and defiant, as violence against Muslims rises.

  • Leila Fadel

    2019

    For Muslims in America: A New Generation, a groundbreaking, six-part series broadcast on National Public Radio. These intimate and surprising stories explore the unseen lives of U.S. Muslims at a time when anti-Islamic sentiment surpasses the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

  • Aymann Ismail

    2019

    For Who's Afraid of Aymann Ismail?, a video series for Slate Magazine in which Mr. Ismail meets with anti-Muslim activists, state legislators, and his own family to find out if there really is anything to fear about American Muslims.

  • Joshua Seftel

    2017

    For The Secret Life of Muslims, a multi-platform series of short non-fiction films that reveals the lives of American Muslims through their careers, talents, and accomplishments.

  • Samuel Freedman

    2017

    For a selection of columns in The New York Times from 2010 through 2016 that chronicle American Muslims, emphasizing the normal, productive lives of these citizens, and pushing back against Islamophobia.

  • Robin Wright

    2017

    For Muslim Heroes, Writers, Artists and an Athlete in America, a series of articles in The New Yorker that reflects the rich and many-sided contributions of Muslims to the American experience.

Community Journalists

Saba Ali

2022

For They pray together. But for U.S. Muslims, rich diversity often divides rather than unites, in Poughkeepsie Journal. Part of a series on Muslims in the suburbs of New York's Mid-Hudson region, highlighting the resilience of the Muslim American experience and surfacing the challenges of how the community's diversity is also a cause for division.

Suzanne Gaber and William Thomson

2022

For Viva Brother Nagi, a Kerning Cultures podcast. Part of a series highlighting Muslim American civil rights voices, like farmworker leader Nagi Daifullah. His work inspired organizers of the Yemeni American Merchants Association. Nagi's story is used in the Association’s educational curriculum.

Student Journalists

  • Eliya Imtiaz

    2022

    For The DEI Conundrum: An Untold Failure of the American Left, in The Michigan Daily. Explores the tokenization and optics involved in current day corporate DEI ( “diversity, equity, and inclusion”).

  • Calvin Milliner

    2022

    For Allah, Family, Football, in the author’s Syracuse University blog. The term "God, Family, Football" is usually told through the lens of Christianity and Catholicism. This story tells it through the lens of Islam.

  • Zainab Sultan

    2019 with Si Chen

    For Worthy of Love, a short documentary video produced by students at the Columbia School of Journalism. This is high caliber reporting on critical and taboo issues in Muslim American communities, which combines great storytelling and excellent production values.

  • Si Chen

    2019 with Zainab Sultan

    For Worthy of Love, a short documentary video produced by students at the Columbia School of Journalism. This is high caliber reporting on critical and taboo issues in Muslim American communities, which combines great storytelling and excellent production values.

  • Sana Ullah

    2017

    For Places You’ll Pray, a collection of vibrant images of young American Muslims praying in public spaces outside of a mosque. The series was created by Ms. Ullah as a student at George Washington University. These photos have since been published in Huffington Post, Fusion, Quartz and other outlets including the Goldziher Website.